Of Love and Legacies
Endowment to provide scholarships for the nurses of tomorrow
In 2013, Mr. P.D. Tuttle of Marshall, Texas, decided he wanted to make permanent his declaration of love and admiration for his late wife, Kathleen. He decided the best way to do so was to create an endowment in her memory to benefit the The University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler).
The Kathleen Edna Tuttle Endowed Nursing Scholarship helps ensure that Kathleen’s nursing legacy will be carried on for generations. The endowment will be used to provide scholarships for full-time nursing students. The gift to UT Tyler also helps to commemorate P.D.—”Doug”—Tuttle’s dedication to family and education.
Doug, who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, began elementary school in 1918. After his eleventh year of schooling, he was ready to graduate from the West Hill High School, but the school added a twelfth grade college preparatory course—and Doug’s father insisted that Doug attend. When he did graduate, he entered McGill University as a freshman with a concentration in engineering.
Doug graduated in 1940 and was hired as an engineer for the Relay Division of the Montreal Light, Heat & Power Company. He soon married, but his first wife, Grace, tragically died while giving birth to their son, Wayne, in 1942.
As a single father, Mr. Tuttle wanted more quality time with his son and still be able to provide for the future. As a result, he accepted a teaching position at the small Clarkson College in Potsdam, New York. He was on faculty there for three years when, in 1948, he joined Cornell University as an Assistant Professor of Engineering. It was during his time at Cornell that Doug gained an even greater love and appreciation for higher education.
The corporate world beckoned, however, and Doug joined the ALCOA Corporation in 1953. As fate would have it, it was the corporate world that would bring him to Texas. During the 1970s aluminum expansion era, Doug was tapped to run the Marshall plant.
A few years before relocating to the Lone Star State, Doug met and fell in love with a nurse who worked at the Jeffery Hale Hospital in Quebec City; they married in 1962 and remained a together for forty-one years until her death in 2003. Together, they had a son: William James Douglas Tuttle.
Kathleen retired from nursing after moving to Marshall, but she never lost her love and concern for those who have to experience a hospital stay, especially children. Her nursing career focused in pediatrics, and she soon became involved as a volunteer at the local hospital. She was instrumental in establishing the “Pink Ladies Auxiliary,” whose main purpose was to meet patients’ personal needs. Today, the program is alive and well at the Marshall Memorial Hospital.
It is no wonder that Mr. Tuttle established the Kathleen Tuttle Endowed Nursing Scholarship. It is his way of honoring Kathleen’s memory and providing an avenue whereby her nursing legacy will be carried on for generations. His generosity ensures that countless students will have the opportunity to become the nurses of tomorrow caring for individuals in doctor’s offices, clinics, and hospitals, and, like Kathleen, giving special attention to the children.
If you would like more information about how to start an endowment, please contact the Office of University Advancement at advancement@uttyler.edu ♦ (903) 566-7110.